Much Ado About Tapestry

Abstract This essay considers the late Victorian period tapestry Much Ado About Nothing (Act IV Scene 1) woven in 1886 by the Royal Windsor Tapestry Works. Founded by two Frenchmen, Marcel Brignolas and Henri C. J. Henry, in 1876, Old Windsor Tapestry relied upon the skilled weavers from the Aubusson works in France who were convinced to make the move to Windsor. They enjoyed the support of Prince Leopold and other members of the royal family, and they were given permission to change their name to the Royal Windsor Tapestry Works in 1880. As the essay will discuss, a careful selection of tapestries after Shakespearian subjects, including Much Ado About Nothing, allowed a firm of French weavers to communicate the Englishness of their endeavour. Shakespeare became a national institution in the nineteenth century, and these tapestries reasserted the historical connection between the royal family, national identity, and tapestry production.